Customizing Variable Prompt and loading Variants

[former_member209399]

Hello,

I am trying to design a template for normal reporting in Design Studio. Therefore entering variables is mandatory since we have a lot of different users using the same report / query and therefore there is no default selection possible (varying sales_org, comp_code etc.).

The current prompt is totaly user unfriendly - no direct Input possible unless you click once on the Attribute and then have to confirm every line with ok. Furthermore I do not see a way to save or load variants like it was possible in WAD templates.

Is there a way to customize the prompt to make it a bit more usable / user friendly? Is there any plan on improving the usability of the prompt in future Releases?

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

Hello Hauke,

I am not sure which version you are using

Changing the prompt screen is a common question; I don't know of a way you can change it.  Having attended several conferences, speakers have said it is a dashboard best practice not to have prompts on dashboards. 

I don't recall seeing it in the roadmap - you can check the most recent one at service.sap.com/roadmap

You can enter an idea at Idea Place at ideas.sap.com

Right now Design Studio does not have variant support either

You could design your dashboard at a summary level and then allow filters or check out the 1.6 "ready to run" templates to see if they can help

[former_member209399 · Accepted solution]

Hello Tammy,

Thank you for the Information.

I'm running DS 1.6.

This Scenario is no dashboard, it is a table view (crosstab) on data with dynamic query selection (as a web alternative for AO) - like the generic analyze template provided in DS 1.6. Therefore we need the prompt since there is no fixed set of included queries.

The Basic templates provided with DS 1.6 use the same prompt.

I'm gonna ask the developers directly in the next Partner-Workshop in Feb in Walldorf

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

Hauke - please report back to us from your workshop next month

I do think Design Studio has shifted now to include more self-service features especially with the ready-to-run templates

[IngoH]

Hello Hauke,

I would recommend "against" the standard prompt screen because you can not really customize it that much.

What about creating / designing basically your own prompting screen with the option to have controls that you would like to offer your users ?

regards

Ingo Hilgefort, Visual BI

[former_member209399]

Hey Ingo,

I thought about my own variable screen but if I did not miss anything there is no way to generate textboxes etc. dynamically on runtime.

We want one template for the complete reporting, so the number and types of variables will change depending on the underlying report. Until there is no dynamic on runtime creation of elements, I can not create my own prompt

[MustafaBensan]

Hi Hauke,

Your observation is accurate.  Unfortunately, there is

no way to dynamically instantiate UI elements which makes it practically impossible to generate a dynamically configured custom variable prompt.  Additionally, there are no BIAL script functions that provide enough metadata about variables either, apart from the variable dimension.  For example, as far as I am aware, it is not possible to determine if a variable is a hierarchy variable, nor is it possible to determine what type of value selections are permitted, such as single value or multi value or ranges etc.  All of these limitations, in my opinion makes the generation of truly dynamic custom variable prompts not feasible.

Hopefully we'll see improvents in available metadata for variables in future.

Regards,

Mustafa.

[xjhacking]

Hi Hauke,

Did you try the new sap.m style? It also adjusted the way the prompt screen looks. I'm not sure if the functionality differs though.

/Xavier

[former_member209399]

Hey Xavier,

I just had a look at the m style and it is a bit more usable but wuite far away from what we had in WAD-prompts. I really hope that SAP will deliver something usefull in the near future.

[Former Member]

There are already a couple of ideas in the Design Studio idea place for implementing a variant save.

Definitely a must-have feature when migrating WAD-reports to Design Studio.

Regards

Robert